O Iron Laputa in the wide open sky,
What say you, island of clicks, clanks and metal shell?
What memories do you contain in your glossy mind's eye?
What stories would you sow and tell?
With vulture wings bleeding red,
And your deep rumbles your war yell,
Among us your flight path creates dread.
Your peers see you as sanctuary, battle station, home -
A place to house exotic treasures, fill bellies and rest a head.
They may leave you behind to roam,
To which you commit to remember,
But your reliable spirit shines like chrome.
Burning on wind and fuel and portion of ember
They shall honor you, Airship, an honorary Toppat member!
A/N: A different kind of spotlighting, but a very important one. Like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, the Toppat Airship is a character in its own right despite its non-sentient appearance. If only it could reveal the things it has seen since its first flight, what stories would it tell? Its first step into the world of the Toppats? The moment Terrence was overthrown by Reginald? When it was decimated in Revenged? What would it think if it knew it was left behind by the clan in favor of the space station? All questions to ponder.
The poetry form I'm using is called a Terza Rima, an Italian form invented by poet Dante Alighieri in the late thirteenth century as a means to structure his epic poem, The Divine Comedy. The end-word of the second line in one tercet - or a group of three lines of verse - will often supply the rhyme for the first and third lines in the following tercet. Thus a rhyme scheme of (ABABCBCDCDED) continues on until the final line or stanza. Some poems can use a couplet to end the scheme, and there are no limits as to the amount of lines a poem composed in this form can have.
References:
-Laputa is not only a reference to the Studio Ghibli film, Castle in the Sky, it's also a reference to a fictional floating and movable island in the book Gulliver's Travels, written by Mr. Jonathan Swift. I thought it fitting to name this poem after the island because of a commonality shared between the Toppats and the Laputans - the populations consist of educated elites and servants (although in the Toppats' case there are no servants to be found) and they are knowledgable in many fields such as mathematics, astronomy, music and technology. They also separate themselves from the world quite often - perhaps as their own forms of paradise? Possible.
-"Among us your flight path creates dread": an intentional nod to Among Us, particularly the Airship level. I'm so proud. XD
Enjoy!